Fail Fast and Fix it Fast

Written by Simon Bennison

Monday, 21 December 2009 17:10

The 'Fail Fast' philosophy for working online is something we have often discussed at Alienation, and it came up again at the ‘Maximise Your Online Profits!’ Ecommerce Event that we recently attended. The event highlighted the extent to which this strategy is employed by other companies that are really successful online.

At the event, Barrhead Travel Marketing Director Mark Brock spoke about the learning process that has led to it becoming one of Scotland’s leading ecommerce companies. By being prepared to fail, and set up to evolve, Barrhead Travel has learned how to maximise its website’s potential as a customer service channel, as opposed to merely a sales tool. Mark spoke of how he wished he’d realised this when Barrhead Travel first started out online, but if they had waited apprehensively then surely they would never have got to where they are now.

Matt Round from Amazon.com, the multinational ecommerce retailer, echoed this sentiment. According to Matt, Amazon are constantly refining and testing new changes to the website. But far from setting themselves up for failure, the team at Amazon always tests new changes to web pages alongside the old pages, and they are always ready to make another change based on the results.

Ever thought the Amazon website was too cluttered? Well they tested a de-cluttered version of the website against the existing site, and noticed a considerable drop in customer satisfaction and purchase statistics, so they changed it back. When they trialled a new welcome message, they noticed an upturn in purchases so they kept it. Amazingly, Amazon still considers itself to be in the embryonic stages of its development; it has got where it is by learning from multiple failures and turning them into success.

Of course, the ‘Fail Fast’ philosophy doesn’t mean setting yourself up for a failure. It’s about constantly trying new things, optimising your website in new ways and comparing the results to the old way: constantly evolving and improving on your current position. If something fails, you can fix it quickly online.

By being prepared to fail and willing to give things a try, many online companies have managed to succeed in a big way.

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written by Upper Cervical Software, January 15, 2010

i think if you have learning skills then no one stop you from being successful and if failure may first strike that doesn't mean that you are a looser. keep it up

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